A former New York Police Department (NYPD) detective was among four people busted in a drug ring that involved funneling narcotics from Manhattan to Staten Island, authorities said.
Police found at least 13 unlicensed firearms inside 60-year-old retired NYPD detective Philip Pietrunti’s home after investigators intercepted his phone, according to a report by the New York Post.
In one conversation the alleged ringleader, 44-year-old Shanta Sawyer, was reportedly heard speaking to Pietrunti about selling cocaine to him for resale.
“You can’t wait until you get off from work?” Pietrunti allegedly asked, to which Sawyer replied, “No, because I’m selling to someone at work.”
Sawyer is charged with conspiring with Pietrunti — a former NYPD Emergency Service Unit member — along with his wife, 37-year-old Sophia Abinacer, and 35-year-old Michael Giordano, to supply illegal narcotics to customers in Staten Island.
While New York City’s Special Narcotics Prosecutor’s Office announced the arrests on Monday, the crew was busted last week after a six-month wiretap investigation that resulted in a raid of all of their homes.
Police reportedly found large quantities of fentanyl, crack cocaine, and heroin, along with a pill-pressing machine, while searching Sawyer and Abinacer’s Washington Heights residence — where two young children were present.
Meanwhile, inside Giordano’s home, authorities uncovered a small lockbox of crack cocaine, 40 envelopes containing heroin and cocaine, as well as two scales, and drug packaging materials.
In late August, Sawyer and Pietrunti were overheard discussing a plan to meet at a Wendy’s to sell cocaine and “Xannies,” also known as Xanax pills. Moreover, Sawyer reportedly informed the ex-detective that the pills were fake.
In early October, investigators intercepted a call, in which Sawyer planned to send Abinacer to meet a buyer for a narcotics deal involving “dog food,” “G’s,” “Hard,” “Candy,” and “Pebbles” — slang terms for heroin, crack cocaine, and fentanyl.
The next day, police spotted Sawyer’s wife showing up in Huguenot, Staten Island, to meet with the customer before driving back to her Manhattan residence, the New York Post reported.
Multiple phone calls also revealed that Sawyer and Giordano planned to sell cocaine and fentanyl to another customer from Giordano’s home. Police then saw a customer pull up to the residence, where Giordano came out and leaned into the vehicle. Sawyer left afterward.
“The defendants involved in this takedown are alleged to have participated in a multi-borough criminal conspiracy that sought to flood our borough with dangerous narcotics, including large quantities of fentanyl, heroin and oxycodone,” Richmond County District Attorney Michael McMahon said.
“One of the defendants, Philip Pietrunti, a Staten Islander and retired NYPD Emergency Service Unit member, is accused of amassing a small army’s worth of illegal firearms, jeopardizing our borough’s public safety and betraying his oath to protect the community he once served,” McMahon added.
Notably, this is not the ex-detective’s first run-in with the law.
In 2015, Pietrunti was accused of firing a gun at an excavator vehicle over a job dispute with a construction company he previously worked for — his third arrest that year, according to a report by the Staten Island Advance.
Pietrunti was reportedly arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court on Friday. The former NYPD detective was ordered to be held on $100,000 bail.
Sawyer’s bail was set at $250,000, while Abinacer and Giordano were released without bail.
Alana Mastrangelo-Wrask is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
